I have just posted a trio of new research white papers to SSRN. These represent the latest output from the Kennedy Idea Propulsion Laboratory and the culmination of my work over the last month to move AI beyond “utilitarian drift.” This is the cycle of incremental efficiency gains that ultimately generates no transformative insight.
Human-in-the-Loop Is Systems Stewardship
An investigation into why serious AI work depends less on clever prompts and more on defending invariants, boundaries, and human judgment.
At the end of a long, technical AI session this week, something became clear to me: human-in-the-loop is being misunderstood in ways that matter.
The issue wasn’t whether the system could generate outputs quickly
The Inquest: Trading the AI Idol for Human Investigation
In 1980, I wrote a senior thesis paper called “Imagination: A Romantic Ideal.” My investigation then was a critique of the German and English Romantics who, in their zeal to undo the “damage” of Enlightenment Reason, merely erected a new idol: The Imagination.
Through a concrete analysis of Keats and Poe, I discovered a truth
The Operational Protocol Method: Systematic LLM Specialization Through Collaborative Persona Engineering and Agent Coordination
This paper has been published and and a PDF of it is available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5397903
The Operational Protocol Method: Systematic LLM Specialization Through Collaborative Persona Engineering and Agent Coordination
By Dennis Kennedy
August 19, 2025
Kennedy Idea Propulsion Laboratory Working Paper No. 2025-01
License: This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
My Next Chapter
After a truly rewarding run, I am concluding my service as the Director of the Center for Law, Technology & Innovation at Michigan State University College of Law.
It has been an immense privilege to work with so many brilliant students, dedicated faculty, and professional colleagues. I am incredibly proud of what we built together
The Invisible Productivity Drain: Why “Finishing” Should Be Your New Focus
We often talk about starting new projects, brainstorming innovative ideas, and maximizing our billable hours. But what about the silent drain on our productivity? I’m talking about the multitude of unfinished tasks, lingering commitments, and half-completed initiatives that clutter our minds and sap our energy.
In the latest issue of my newsletter, Personal Strategy
Bypass Analysis Paralysis with the 20-Minute Lightning Round
If you are a high-achieving professional, you live with a fundamental tension. You know that deep, strategic thinking is the engine of your success, yet your calendar is a fortress that rarely permits the quiet time required for it. Important decisions loom, but the sheer complexity of your options leads to the all-too-familiar state of
My Productive Personal Offsites Course – Price Cut
I held my Q3 Personal Quarterly Offsite last week. I developed this technique several years ago and have found it incredibly useful.
The premise is that, like a corporate or business retreat or offsite, you can and should set aside a few hours every quarter to focus on your personal goals, developments, and status, and
Slides from my Recent AI Presentation
I recently presented to a great audience at the State Bar of Michigan Information Technology Law Section’s Annual conference about AI. I described my presentation as an introduction to AI for not-overly-technical lawyers. And it was a lot of fun. Although I’m now concentrating on speaking a private events, it was great to do a
Four Scenarios for the Future of Legal Education
I’m starting to publish regular blog posts from my generative AI experiments in what I now refer to as my “AI Lab.” In this post, I offer for your consideration the output generated by ChatGPT after a series of prompts I tried. I’m now calling what I’m doing “promptcrafting,” because, hey, why not? “Prompt